Mainland stocks fell on Friday as persistent Middle East tensions dented investor sentiment while Hong Kong shares were buoyed by a rally in semiconductor stocks following DeepSeek’s new AI ⁠release.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended 62 points, or 0.2 percent, up at 25,978 on market turnover of HK$236.72 billion.

The China enterprises index was 42 points, or 0.5 percent, higher at 8,775 while the tech index was 36 points, or 0.8 percent, up at 4,902.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek launched a preview of its highly anticipated new model, the V4, on Friday, saying the latest model outperforms other open-source models in world-knowledge benchmarks.

Semiconductor and chip shares rose as the market expects the new model to run on homegrown chips.

Huahong Semiconductor and SMIC jumped 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Up north, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended down 13 points, or 0.33 percent, at 4,079 but marked a third straight week of gains.

The Shenzhen Component Index was 103 points, or 0.69 percent, lower at 14,940 while the ChiNext Index was 52 points, or 1.41 percent, lower at 3,667.

The combined turnover of the main Shanghai and Shenzhen indexes was 2.64 trillion yuan, down from 2.8 trillion yuan on Thursday.

The CSI Semiconductor Industry index jumped 1.8 percent on the DeepSeek news.

Stalled US-Iran ceasefire talks dampened investor confidence.

Iran demonstrated its control over the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday with video ⁠of its commandos storming a huge cargo ship.

Also ⁠weighing on sentiment, the ⁠White House accused China of stealing US AI labs' intellectual property on an industrial scale, putting pressure on the ⁠country ahead of a summit between US and Chinese leaders next month.

Risk-off takes hold once again amid continued Middle East concerns and a stronger US dollar, KraneShares analysts said in a note.

The telecommunications ⁠sector lost more than four percent, leading declines in China.

Leading optical module firm Eoptolink's shares slumped 12 percent after posting weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings.

HSBC analysts expect more foreign fund inflows into China's stock markets this year, with US Federal Reserve funds futures pricing in at least one 25-basis-point cut in 2026.

Japan's Nikkei set a closing record high, capping a third consecutive weekly gain, as enthusiasm over technology sector earnings offset uncertainty over a potential peace deal in ⁠the Middle East.

The Nikkei 225 Index rose almost 576 points, or 0.97 percent, to 59,716, putting the benchmark up 2.1 percent for the week.

The broader Topix eked out a 0.01 percent advance to end at 3,716.

In Seoul, the Kospi inched down less than 0.01 percent to 6,475 at the close. (Reuters/Xinhua)


Edited by Tony Sabine